Thursday, June 28, 2018

San Juan County Road 228 aka South Cottonwood Road, there
is a main reason why I specifically wanted to come to this area; my dentist,
Dr. Brian Goodwine of San Juan Dental in Monticello (part of the Utah Navajo
Health System, Inc).He is the great
grandson of Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr., active in the development of the San Juan
Mission in Mexico.While at my 6 month
checkup, Dr. Goodwine asked if I'd ever been to the Cheese and Raisins Hills;
"The what?" I asked, and "Where are they?"He told me the story of Lemuel who had cattle
up on those hills; one day his ranch hands asked him if he would like to share
their lunch of cheese and raisins with them."All you boys ever eat is cheese and raisins, cheese and
raisins"; and that is how the hills in the area became so named.I was able to also verify this story through
the book, Utah's Canyon Country Place Names by Steve Allen, as told by
Albert R. Lyman.On the Internet,
someone's vacation blog, didn't note the name down though, was a second story
on how the hills were named.There were
several mines in the area; the miners often had cheese and raisins in their
lunches.Since the mines were not
started till around the early 1930s, the first version of the story is closer
to the truth.A photo of Lemuel and his
wives, Eliza and Lucy, and their story can be found in the book, They Came
to Grayson put out by the Ridgeway Art Gallery in Blanding.

Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr with wives, Eliza and Lucy

Talking about mining, the ruins of the old Cottonwood
Millsite is along this county road which got me to thinking about typical
miners’ meals which got me thinking about Cornish Pasties.Oh my, isn’t that a nice run-on sentence; but
that story will be for another article as I’m concentrating on cheese and
raisins right now.

Raisins are simply dried grapes, which would stand up
well during the long journeys the pioneers traveled to win over the Wild
West.Cheese, however, now where did
they get cheese from and how did it keep without refrigeration?Time to research cattle within San Juan
County and I certainly did find a moo-full of information!

Briefly, when the Hole in the Rockers came to Bluff, they
did have cattle along for the trek. Dunham aka Short Horn which were great
milkers, but also provided meat to the settlers.However, there had already been established,
within San Juan County, cattle companies from Colorado and Texas; competition
for grazing land became an issue.Excuse
me while I digress a little more; eventually Peters of Peters Hill fame sold
his cattle; Howard Carlisle, a British patriot, eventually sold his
cattle.The remaining cattle company was
the LC, which remained in the Blanding area…. poor ranch cook Harry Hopkins,
may he in rest in peace.Digging around,
I was able to find out that Peters and Carlisle began a new cattle company in
Kansas City, MO.While Peters, whose
given name was Quincy, became the company’s accountant; Howard Carlisle got in
huge trouble selling stolen cattle.

Where did I get my information on Peters and Carlisle
after they left San Juan County?Scholars Archive of BYU: The Cattle Industry of San Juan County, Utah,
1875 – 1900 by Franklin D. Day, and United States. Courts; Circuit Court of
Appeals, volume 47.

Emma Smith 1884

Now back to cheese and raisins, and were they only eaten
separately, or did those resilient pioneer women combine them into a
recipe?Emma Smith, wife of prophet Joseph Smith baked
up biscuits nicknamed “politicians” due to their being so light and full of hot
air.I didn’t make this up; the story
appears in Good Things to Eat From Old Nauvoo by Theo E. Boyd.These biscuits were normally used to make
strawberry shortcake, but other variations were: cherry, peaches, warm
applesauce, raisins plus cinnamon and honey, chopped dates and nuts, or grated
or cubed cheese with raisins.There you
go, cheese and raisins in biscuits; but you can use this combination in scones
as well and it is delicious!

Hope you enjoyed my convoluted journey through San Juan
County pioneer history, and here is Emma Smith’s Biscuit recipe.

Biscuits

(Good Things to Eat
From Old Nauvoo by Theo E. Boyd)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. shortening

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preparation:

Sift dry ingredients. Add shortening and cut in with a
pastry blender or two knives until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add
buttermilk and mix lightly.

Turn out on floured board. Pat out to 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick. Cut, sprinkle with sugar and place on
well-greased pan and bake at 425 degrees until golden brown.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

This little story came
about due to the posing of a single jackrabbit.Normally they’re zipping back and forth across roadways, or racing
through the desert trying not to smash into sage brush.Photographing them is next to impossible,
those buggers don’t sit still long enough, until that one day.Sitting at the front desk of Canyon Country
Discovery Center, well I have the best seat in the house.Large window panes allow me to look across
farmland and canyon rocks stretching eastward to Colorado; in the far distance
are the majestic San Juans.Typical
wildlife that entertains are mule deer, wild turkeys, red fox, antics of chipmunks,
aerodynamics of hummingbirds and the zipping of jackrabbits.Then it happened, a jackrabbit stopped on a
gravel path and began to “strike the pose…vogue” (Madonna song reference).He (assuming it was a he, I didn’t actually
check) sat back on those long, power punching legs; turned his head this way
and that; then turned his whole body so that the mild wind pushed his ears
back.His eyes slowly closed and I swear
that little bugger had decided to take a nap there and then.

So, back to the mention of
a little story and let me put the disclaimer now, so those experts on wildlife
won’t get all bent out of shape.The
story I’m about to tell about this jackrabbit is totally made up, a work of
fiction from my mind; call me crazy and I’ll say thank you for noticing.

Meet Jack, Jack the
Rabbit; he’s not much on commitment; loves the ladies, but doesn’t stick around
long enough for a lasting relationship.He’s a bit of a cad, loves them and leaves them in a “delicate”
condition.Now the ladies, they have
their own issues; so busy running to no place in particular that when the babe
comes, it’s “pop it out, it fends for itself”.Jackrabbits don’t build nests in the ground like the cute cottontails;
nope, their babies are born wide eyed, bushy tailed and raring to go-go-go.Jack has a sister, Jackie; who happened to
meet one handsome hare from Wyoming.The
Wyoming Alope family are well known in those parts for slick dealing at the
gambling table and serving up watered down liquor at their establishment.Yes sir, Jackie married and became…Jackie ALope.

Then there is Jack’s
uncle, Bob; the family don’t speak much about Bob, not since “the
incident”.Seems Bob got into a bit of a
mess when he was hungry and decided that elderberries would make a great snack.Well he was a bit lazy that day too, so
instead of picking those berries fresh off the bush, he ate the ones sitting on
the ground, not realizing they had fermented into wine.That Cat was so drunk, didn’t realize that
his neighbor’s third daughter was sleeping under that elderberry bush.Nope, he had his way with her, No, not that
way, get your minds out of the gutter; he done ‘et her!Yep, Bob’s his uncle, but they don’t really
talk about Bob in front of pleasant company.

Ah cooking, this column is
supposed to focus on cooking, so let’s cook up some rabbit, aye?In Native American cultures, the rabbit
resides in legends from being a good luck charm to a parallel of coyote; the
protector of witches and a trickster.Mesoamerican belief was that a rabbit, not a man, resided in the
moon.No matter the legend, the rabbit
was prized for its meat; its fur and tanned hide made into gloves, caps, cradle
board cushions or padding.

In the cookbook, Pueblo
Indian Cookbook by Phyllis Hughes, there is a kitchen tested recipe for
Jackrabbit Stew.While researching
recipes for this article, I found that Native American cooking
techniques/beliefs resembled ones I am quite acquainted with. Before serving
the meal, a small portion is offered up to the spirits; similar to the offering
of a piece of bread and meat to the Greek Goddess, Hestia (protector of the
home and hearth; goddess of hospitality).When it comes to measuring, it comes down to the senses; the feel of the
grains, herbs and spices, a sort of knowing, in your heart, what amounts are
correct.That’s what cooking with love
and passion are!

So here’s the recipe, and
if rabbit or hare are not your type of fare; substituting chicken will be just
as tasty.

Jackrabbit Stew

(Pueblo Indian Cookbook,
page 39)

Ingredients:

1 jackrabbit (or domestic
hare or 5 lb. baking chicken)

1 large onion, chopped

1 tsp. salt

2/3 Tbsp. chile powder
(optional)

1 and ½ cups flour

2 quarts water

2 large onions

6 large carrots, halved

2 sweet peppers, halved
and seeded

4 tsp. salt

2 cups cooked lime hominy

¾ cup melted lard or
cooking oil

Preparation:

Cut rabbit (or other) into
serving size pieces.Dredge in
flour.Put oil in large kettle and heat
until sizzling.Brown all pieces of meat
on all sides, drain and pour off excess oil.Return meat to kettle, add water and simmer for two hours, add all
vegetables and simmer until carrots are tender.

Note:Not sure if the repeat of onion and salt are
intentional or a misprint.The majority
of cookbooks also have ingredients listed in the order that they are used,
while this recipe is a bit of a hodge podge.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

As long as I can remember,
and that is a long time, the United States of America has been the unofficial
“911” of the world. Global disasters,
whether brought about by human hands, or the displeasure of Mother Nature, the
American government and its people were ready, willing and able to help. It wasn’t until the 1980s that I personally
took notice that when it came to America itself, we seemed to be failing the
911 calls from our own farmers.

The first Farm Aid Concert
was held on September 22, 1985; organized by Willie Nelson, John “Cougar”
Mellencamp and Neil Young. The focus of
the concert was to raise money for American farmers who were being threatened
by foreclosure due to mortgage debts.
Now while Congress did pass, in 1987, the Agricultural Credit Act, to
keep foreclosures at bay, the question remains, why, why was the farming
industry in such dire straits?

Simply put, the cause is
“dumping”, but an article, Global Trade can Make or Break Farmers, by Jennifer
Fahy (Communications Director for Farm Aid) explains it in more detail. Quote, “Agricultural dumping — the practice
of exporting commodities at prices below the cost of production….encourages
overproduction, trapping family farmers in a never-ending need for higher
yields… forcing…farmers off the land, while damaging rural economies, public
health and our environment.”

Jump forward to the 2000s –
2010s and the newest term to hit the food industry, “Fair Trade”; sounds
similar to the term “barter”, no? No,
fair trade is, as defined by Fair Trade Certified aka Fair Trade USA, “a choice
to support responsible companies, empower farmers, workers, and fishermen, and
protect the environment. In other words, it’s a world-changing way of doing
business.” Formerly this applied to
poorer countries, or what are referred to as “third world countries”; but
recently the practice is being applied to American food industries, namely
farmers.

Should you, as a consumer,
make a conscious effort to purchase fair trade products? Sadly, the answer is dependent on your, or
your family’s, financial good or bad health.
Fair trade products are pricey; while a 12 ounce package of Dunkin’
Donuts (coffee beans from Latin America) costs an average of $6.99; Equal
Exchange’s 12 ounce package will cost an average of $8.99. Equal Exchange gets their coffee beans from a
small town in Brazil, called Bahia, and, now hold on a minute, isn’t Brazil in
Latin America!?! The difference is large
company growing and harvesting the beans as opposed to family farmers in a
small village. The product you decide to
purchase is now dependent on what you can comfortably afford to pay.

In my humble opinion, the
concept of fair trade is not unreasonable; we can apply it to the “small
cottage” industry San Juan County is attempting to develop.A huge corporation can make jams and
jellies, selling cheaper in bulk.At
home businesses will have similar products, made fresh, by folks you personally
know, just a bit more costly.Which
should you buy?Again, it’s dependent on
what you can comfortably afford; but I know I’d rather see a San Juan County,
Utah, USA label on a jar of jam, then “Made in China”.Again, that’s just my own opinion.

Mary Cokenour

Note:
All photographs are of products available at Nature’s Oasis, Durango, CO